Recount in Rehoboth reveals more school roof repair opposition votes

The margin between the yes-votes and no-votes now stands at eight. An elected official called the results "disappointing."

Marc Larocque Enterprise Staff Writer @Enterprise_Marc

REHOBOTH — A vote recount in Rehoboth on Monday reaffirmed the town’s opposition to a roof repair project at the regional high school.

While the initial results from the April 7 referendum showed that the school roof repair project was defeated by a slim margin of just two votes, the recount revealed that the margin of the voter majority against the project was actually eight votes.

Three votes were gained against the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School roof project, and the total votes in favor of the project decreased by three.

The new vote total was 658 against the project, 650 in favor of it and 54 blanks. The initial results indicated that the ballot question lost by just two votes, with 655 people voting against it, 653 voting for it and 54 blanks.

The ballot question asked the town to approve a $6,698,587 project to fix the roof at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School, located in Dighton; with 52 percent of the project costs to be covered by a Massachusetts School Building Authority grant, which will now be lost, school board officials said. However, the voters approved a separate ballot question to fund a roof repair project at the Beckwith Middle School, in Rehoboth, through the same MSBA grant program, which the school district also plans to use for a repair project at Dighton Middle School and Dighton Elementary School, said Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School Committee member Tiffany Bartholomew.

“It’s slightly disappointing to lose the grant,” Bartholomew said, adding that the school could reapply for it next January. “But I believe in the process. The voters have the right. … I think one of the reasons (they voted against it) is the (ballot) question was slightly confusing. And the second reason is some of the political issues going on in town. It’s a very large ticket number to pay on your taxes, to have your taxes increased, and that’s a big decision for people.”

Bartholomew said that, with leaky roofs at the high school, the district would have to make repairs as needed and assess the situation in the future. Fellow Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School Committee member Ray Medeiros said, “We have to move forward,” and explained that the school district will use its general budget for urgent repairs.

Essentially, Dighton’s approval of the high school roof repair project in a separate town election was moot, after 504 voters there voiced support for the measure, 251 disapproved of it and 62 left the question blank during the April 12 Town Election, according to the Dighton Town Clerk’s Office.

MSBA repair program rules state that both towns in a regional district need to approve funding for the project through separate referendums within its 120-day deadline from when the school committee formally accepts the funding, which in this case was late January.

“It’s disappointing,” Medeiros said. “The town is not ready for a bond on this issue. We may come back to it.”

Town Counsel Sarah Bellino, an attorney based out of Newburport, said that she believes the recount went smoothly.

“We had no major errors," Bellino said. “We had no hang-ups. We had no objections from any of the observers. It was helpful that I had a very organized Board of Registrars.”

The votes were brought into the room in three blue duffle bags, from each of the three precincts in Rehoboth. In addition to Bellino and Town Clerk Laura Schwall, a team of eight election workers sat counting the ballots, two election workers acted as “runners,” and another tallied them all up, while four observers from the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School Committee looked over their shoulders.

There was one absentee ballot that was left over from the election that was in question because the voter didn’t sign the manila envelope. Schwall said she reached out to the voter by phone on the day of the election, but that the person couldn’t sign it by the end of polling hours. The Board of Registrars held a brief hearing during the recount to nullify the sole questionable absentee ballot.

The recount took about two and a half hours, after starting at 10 a.m. on Monday morning.